My Town

Environment and the California budget: Seeking more money and staff for fire prevention and logging oversight

By Paul Rogers progers@mercurynews.com

Posted:
01/10/2013 02:07:24 PM PST

Updated:
01/10/2013 02:17:44 PM PST

When it comes to the environment, the state budget released Thursday was the first time in four years that a governor has not proposed closing state parks to save money. Gov. Jerry Brown was banned from doing that last year by the Legislature for at least two years.

His budget added 49 new staff members in the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, the State Water Resources Control Board and other agencies to increase oversight of logging operations, particularly their impact on erosion and streams. The new jobs are funded by a 1 percent tax on lumber. The tax, which will raise about $35 million a year, was approved last year, and supported by the timber industry, as part of a deal that reduced liability for timber companies that cause forest fires.

"The funding will help make sure that logging companies obey the law," said Sierra Club California director Kathryn Phillips. "It will help keep California forests healthy enough to provide all the crucial services we need -- rainfall capture, mountainside stabilization, wildlife habitat, recreation -- even as the timber industry thrives. The proposal is good for the environment and the economy."

Brown also proposed hiring 65 new employees in the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, funded by a controversial fee put in place last year on rural landowners.

"These aren't guys on trucks; these are folks who will be doing brush clearing and other activities to prevent structure and property damage and harm to life from wildfires," said Richard Stapler, a spokesman for the state Natural Resources Agency.

Advertisement

The budget also acknowledges that the state may not be raising as much money as it had expected from the proceeds of auctioning pollution permits under its new greenhouse gas law.

The state Legislative Analyst's Office last year predicted that the auctions would raise $1 billion to $3 billion a year in 2012 and 2013.

But the first auction, held in November, raised slightly less than $300 million because companies bid barely above the minimum price for carbon permits. Of that money, $55 million went to the state treasury and $233 million was refunded to utility ratepayers. As a result, Brown's budget says it now expects auction proceeds of $200 million in the current fiscal year and $400 million in 2013-14 to the state treasury, which could be important since some officials were looking at the auctions as a way to provide billions to the state's high-speed rail project. But now that money may not materialize.